coldwater camp

[nibot]

We camped the first night at Coldwater campground, located near the end of the Lake Mary road out of Mammoth, right next to the Duck Pass trailhead.

Coldwater was typical car camping at a popular spot, with all 77 campsites filling up by nightfall, almost everyone with huge RV's, dogs, generators, etc, a scene that is at once very much familiar but also perplexing: A couple hundred people gather in a small area of land to "get away from it all," bringing as many comforts from home as possible, all having separate campfires, and trying to pretend the other campers don't exist. One can't help but think that it's a culturally significant activity. How is camping different in other countries? We were more interested in meeting other people, and I pondered the notion of a campsite pot-luck, or at least a communal campfire. Also: at $19/night, the Inyo National Forest campsites cost more to rent than my apartment!

In the morning we broke camp, ate a big breakfast/lunch, and drove up to the trailhead. Here we are:



The hike from the Coldwater trailhead up to Duck Lake is short (~5 miles) and up hill, climbing from 9000 feet to the pass at 10800 feet, then dropping down to Duck and Pika lakes at 10500 feet.

Always associated with backpacking, at least for me, has been an obsession with food, driven both by exertion and the knowledge that you'll be subsisting on rather minimal fixings for the next several days.

"Let me know when you start thinking about food. I'm already daydreaming about eating some ribs!" I told Bree.

The hiker is rewarded immediately upon departing the trailhead by the alpine lakes Arrowhead, Skelton, Red, and Barney. We were fresh, so the the thousand-foot climb to the pass went quickly. From there, looking back, we saw this:

Comments

[nibot.livejournal.com]

It was pretty short trip--just three nights in the wilderness, plus a couple more nights camping--but a good one!

[rosiedee.livejournal.com]

Oh! Gorgeous! My picture from our climb through a pass looks almost exactly like yours, except we were also racing the clouds that were quickly rolling up the valley toward us. And, um, we had a 4000 ft. climb to get there. And also: snow. Which was terrifying.

We stopped at a Subway after my first backpacking trip, and it has become a tradition for me, that my first meal back among humanity is always The Most Amazing Subway Sandwich.

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

The highlight after the big hike is "Frosty Chalet," found in two locations along 395. Awesome shakes of every imaginable flavor. Imagine our despair upon learning that Frosty Chalet had gone out of business. We're talking about a lonely road with very few eateries. And of course, even had they been there, which they were not,any other fast food place would have been a very distant second choice. A primal tragedy!

[rosiedee.livejournal.com]

Our considerably hazier view from the pass:

[nibot.livejournal.com]

ha! It does look almost the same!

Where'd you go?

[rosiedee.livejournal.com]

I know! I kind of did a double take when I saw your picture! I guess glacial cirques are all the same.

We hiked through Gray Wolf Pass (http://www.summitpost.org/album/389934/gray-wolf-pass-&-area.html). Needless to say, it looked nothing like those pictures. Our view of the apparently spectacular Wellesley Peak was a big cloud.

[clevermynnie.livejournal.com]

I love alpine lakes and I love that area. Nice choice.

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

funny - i noticed the same thing on my camping trip. the RV's, the creature comforts, the trying to pretend you're out in the wilderness and no one else is there....

and, were people with their obnoxious crying babies? why on earth would you bring babies camping? won't they be eaten by bears simply so the bears will be able to sleep in relative silence?

luxor city

[hamdey.livejournal.com]

Luxor, City of the Living When Memphis was at its apogee, Thebes was no more than a small village. Mentuhotep (Middle Kingdom, 2060-2010 BC), King of Thebes who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, made Thebes the capital of the Empire. Thebes thus superseded the southern city of Memphis, then wracked by internal disputes. The new capital reached its high point under the New Kingdom and acquired imposing buildings. From the reign of Thutmose III (1484-1450 BC), Thebes extended its authority as far as the banks of the Euphrates to the north, to the border with Libya in the east and as far as Sudan in the south. The right bank, site of modern-day Luxor, was the City of the Living dedicated to Amen, an obscure local divinity raised to the level of principal deity in place of Re. The priests of Amen eventually became so powerful that nothing escaped their political control. Amenhotep IV (1372-1354 BC) experienced this to his cost when he decided to abandon Amen and the pantheon of gods for the monotheistic cult of Aten; when the pharaoh died, Tell el-Amarna, the city dedicated to the new cult, was destroyed by the servants of Amen who at the same time set about restoring divine power as they saw it. Aside from conquering and warring with enemy peoples such as the Hittites and Libyans, successive pharaohs â€" seen as divine incarnations and revered as such â€" were preoccupied with ensuring their own greatness and legacy. They were keen, therefore, to extend and embellish the two temples erected to the glory of Amen â€" the complex at Karnak and the more modest temple at Luxor â€" whilst endeavouring, sometimes aggressively, to erase the memory of preceding pharaohs’ prestige. Luxor, tourist capital of Egypt The decline and subsequent disappearance of the pharaonic civilisation dealt a serious blow to Luxor. Previously cared-for and revered monuments, which had been the exclusive domain of the highest dignitaries and priests serving omnipotent gods, now provided shelter for crude brick houses belonging to anyone who came along. Only the high, thick temple walls were able to afford effective protection against the bandits of the time. In the earliest centuries of the Christian era, followers of the new faith built their churches within the confines of what had been sacred spaces for Egyptians at the time of the pharaohs. In temples such as those at Luxor and Karnak engraved crosses are still visible. Luxor was of no interest to the Arab armies arriving to spread the faith of Islam. Muslim leaders founded the city of Cairo and the splendour of Islamic civilisation developed hundreds of kilometres to the north of the former capital. When Europeans rediscovered the pharaonic civilisation, as Napoleon did on a military expedition at the end of the eighteenth century bringing back the first ornaments in his luggage, Luxor was a city asleep. Drawings and watercolours of the period illustrate this. The temples are depicted filled with sand and flocks of domestic animals wander among columns buried up to their capitols in the ground. Europe was, however, being gripped at the time by Egyptomania and Orientalism. "La Description de l’Egypte" (A description of Egypt) compiled by scholars accompanying Napoleon’s armies, was written as a result. Exhibitions of antique objects, jewellery and mummies were common. From the second half of the nineteenth century, Luxor became a destination for tourists, but only for a sufficiently wealthy handful. http://www.hamdey.php0h.com/ http://www.luxorcitygold.zaghost.com/